This year, applicants must submit their application forms online through software developed by Carnegie Mellon University’s Center for Arts Management and Technology. The software, called CueRate, was developed to allow artists’ applications and work samples to be submitted and reviewed online.

The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowship CueRate online application is administered in partnership with the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation. To access CueRate and to review PCA Fellowship program guidelines, go here. The online submission deadline for applications is 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2007.

Individuals applying in the visual arts categories must submit both their application form and work sample images online. Work samples for dance, folk and traditional arts, literature, media arts, music and theatre must be mailed as directed to the applicant’s designated Pennsylvania Council on the Arts partner for the respective discipline, postmarked by Aug. 2. Contact information for the partners, including mailing addresses, is included in the application guidelines or on the PCA Web site.

Artists applying for a PCA Fellowship must be permanent residents of Pennsylvania who have established residency for at least two years prior to the application deadline. Prior recipients from the award period Jan. 1, 2007, to December 31, 2007, may not apply this year (in adherence to fellowship guidelines, all recipients must wait one full year before again applying to the program). Students in high school, undergraduate or graduate programs at the time of application are ineligible to apply for a fellowship.

Fellowships are distributed based upon demonstrated artistic excellence. Applicants’ work samples are reviewed by a panel of jurors from outside of Pennsylvania that is comprised of arts professionals with expertise in specific disciplines. All review processes are anonymous, with the exception of the categories of folk and traditional arts. Jurors recommend potential fellowship recipients and respective award amounts to the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts’s 19-member council, which is responsible for final award decisions.

The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts is a state agency whose mission is to foster the excellence, diversity and vitality of the arts in Pennsylvania, and to broaden the availability and appreciation of those arts throughout the state.